District of Columbia Public Schools officials are trying to get a handle on how many uncertified teachers are in the system so they can alert parents if their child is in a class with someone lacking credentials, according to officials.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires the notification, but DCPS has not previously met this mandate, said Mafara Hobson, spokeswoman for Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Hobson said that last year 81 percent of D.C. public schoolteachers were certified. That figure, however, did not take into account new teachers.
After the current payroll period ends Friday, Hobson said, staff members will be able to begin to ascertain who has the proper credentials.
“They will know exactly who the new employees are and will be able to add that count to the current certification list,” she wrote to The Examiner in an e-mail. “In addition, the Office of Certification is currently processing applications, so it’s a joint effort.”
Each state’s education department determines its own standards for teachers. In D.C., jurisdiction over certification will fall to the State Superintendent’s Office. But John Stokes, spokesman for that office, said the office is undergoing a major transformation, and staff members there don’t yet have data on certifying teachers.
Education experts told The Examiner that school leaders should ensure all teachers are certified. However, perhaps more critical is creating stricter standards.
Right now, standards for D.C. teachers revolve around completion of education coursework rather than, as in some states, tests of skill sets.
It’s pointed to as a deficiency in the National Council on Teacher Quality’s most recent analysis, which referred to the District’s overall teacher certification program as “languishing.” The report criticized the fact that new teachers can teach for up to three years before passing licensure tests and that teachers can transfer from other states by just showing a transcript.
Jacquelyn Davis, executive director of New Leaders for New Schools, which trains D.C. principals, said the goal of any certification policy should be to ensure that educators who can drive student achievement, something D.C.’s approach does not do.
“That means linking certification primarily to the knowledge and skills demonstrated by individual candidates — not just university degrees,” she said.
